Free, Free Palestine!

Killing Children is a crime!

Stop the US killing machine!

The Workers Commission of the International League of Peoples Struggles strongly endorses the rightful and extraordinarily courageous assertion of national rights of the Palestinian people by the population of Gaza since the Day of the Land mobilisation on March 30, 2018.

The march tactics of unarmed, direct, civilian-led mass action has unified the Palestinian people in the politically fractured Gaza Strip, and turned a global spotlight on the horrific situation in which people live in Gaza.

We stand in solidarity with them as they continue to protest under fire through to June 5, the anniversary of the 6-day war when Israel occupied the Palestinian lands of the West Bank and Gaza, the Syrian lands of the Golan Heights, and the Egyptian territory in the Sinai.

On many days up to 35,000 Palestinian people have rallied to the protests, and on many Fridays the number has been over 10,000.

We join our voice to that of the whole ILPS and world opinion to condemn the criminal brutality of the Israeli regime in its use of live ammunition and massive tear gas attacks against unarmed protesters during all these weeks, since March 30. The Israeli military have murdered 168 civilian Palestinians and the wounded 12,600 in the period up to May 20. Many children have been killed and injured. Not one Israeli soldier has been killed, and one was lightly injured.

When Israel made its murderous policy clear on March 30, by killing 19 and wounding 1,416, the international community did not react strongly to protect life and uphold international law, and so the deadly brutality was given the green light.

The decision by the US Trump administration to open its Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14 was the strongest endorsement of the Israeli government’s crimes. On that day, 62 protesters were killed and 3,200 wounded in Gaza. US imperialism has always defended the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, and Trump is simply the crudest expression yet of this policy.

The Workers Commission in particular condemns the use of snipers to kill two journalists and one doctor and damage 32 ambulances. Ninety journalists and two hundred medics have been wounded.

The Palestinian people are demanding the right of refugees to return to their homes, for an end to the Blockade of Gaza, and are condemning the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem. We stand in solidarity for these demands.

Of course, we demand that the institutions of international law take action against the Israeli government, but we will not wait for them. ILPS Workers Commission calls for ongoing world-wide mobilisations by trade unions, workers and communities to demand justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its criminal blockade of Gaza.

Coca-Cola is the world’s richest beverage company. The multinational corporation’s richness rests on the power of monopoly capitalists to rule financial capital, grab resources, control markets, and extract superprofits by exploiting the workers of different countries.

Exploiting the Workers

Coca-Cola directly accounts for around 100,000 workers, but hundreds of thousands more are working in its supply chain.

Coca-Cola’s agricultural supply chain in many countries is marked with poverty wages and repression.

Plundering Resources

In many countries where it operates, it is involved in the plunder of resources especially water, the main ingredient of all its products. The company takes away water from poor urban and rural communities.

Greedy Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, one of the richest multinational corporations, is controlled by the some of greediest financial capitalists in the world.

Coca-Cola is a US-based company which owns 500 brands including Coke, Sprite, and Powerade. It also owns local brands in different countries. Its system of company-owned and independent bottling and distribution operations are in 200 countries in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America. Its headquarter is in Atlanta, USA.

Its declared revenue for 2017 is $35.4 billion.

Coca Cola is a major sponsor of the biggest media networks – TV, print, radio, social media and major sports and entertainment events all over the world.

Coca-Cola is highly influential in US government and in many governments around the world. It is also influential in trade associations, business councils, NGOs, universities, and research foundations.

It has been reported as one of the biggest companies in US and around the world that evades tax by keeping its cash offshore or outside the country where its top officials are headquartered.

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If the US people are in shock at the Trump victory in the US Presidential Elections on November 9, it is no wonder that the rest of the world was also taken by surprise. We all need to analyse what interests Trump represents, how this happened, and how to organise against the government he will lead from January 20 next year.

What does Trump represent?

Donald Trump has been elected on policies that discriminate on the basis of race, religion and gender, and he rejects the urgent need for government action on climate change. He will strongly support new fossil fuel projects.

He promises a massive attack on migrant workers in the United States.

Despite his anti-establishment rhetoric, his policies for deregulation, a 57 per cent business tax cut, and savage spending cuts and a freeze on public sector hiring will benefit the rich and make inequality worse.

While he opposes some trade agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he does so because he considers these were ‘bad deals’ for the USA, not because he supports a fair trade system based on human rights, labor rights and environmental sustainability.

In other words, Trump talked big about how badly American workers had fared under globalization, but he himself will be the crudest expression yet of the neo-liberal agenda in the USA.

While Trump has been described as ‘isolationist’, he has promised a massive increase in military spending, plus demands that US allies pay for more of the overall military task carried out by the USA. He has made a list of the African countries he would “kick out” of the USA, including several that aren’t actually in Africa, such as Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. He particularly aimed at Nigeria and South Africa. He even said that Africa should be recolonized!

So the best way to interpret Trump’s main slogan, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, is: “Let’s go back to a white-run US Empire that everybody fears”.

How did Trump come to win?

Trump’s campaign defeated first the Republican Party and then the Democratic Party because he denounced the disastrous mainstream neo-liberal policies. The Obama Administration failed to help the people who were hit so hard by the Great Recession since 2008, and instead allowed monopoly finance capital to protect itself at the expense of the great mass of the people. While Bernie Sanders understood this, and developed a popular pro-worker, pro-peace program to address it, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party leaders determined to block his socialist solutions.

While most trade union members strongly supported Sanders, the pragmatism of the union leaders meant that union resources mainly went to Clinton.

Broadly, the Democrats and the unions, accepting neo-liberalism, failed their constituents and their members, making it easy for Trump to cynically capture many of their votes.

How to organize against the Trump government

Trump will start his program on January 20 next year, the day of his inauguration. He will definitely declare China a “currency manipulator” which will trigger 45 per cent tariffs on US imports from China. This alone will have a global economic impact.

The union movement all over the world is struggling to lift minimum wages, to gain job security, to build a stronger public sector, and to build stronger trade unions to enable effective collective bargaining. These basic campaigns are very important to defend and improve living standards, but there must also be a much more powerful attack on neo-liberalism itself, which has led to the Trump disaster. This campaign must include the rights of migrant workers and oppose racism.

Strengthen the union movement in US and other countries!

Launch education to enable our organisations to take up the struggles for workers’ alternatives to neo-liberalism.

The Global Capitalist Crisis we have been experiencing since 2008 is now changing its shape with the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, and Trump coming to power in the USA. The conflict among the big capitalist powers is severe, and instead of the cooperative arrangements since World War II of the United Nations and the European Union being used to manage the crisis, the US and the UK are lashing out on their own. The prospect is for a much more severe global economic crash and for more wars.

Launch education to connect the current wars and danger of greater wars with neo-liberalism!

Climate Change is already a real and present global danger to people and the environment. Trump is a ‘climate denier’, who will undermine the weak global efforts committed to in Paris one year ago to reduce carbon emissions and keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 – 2 degrees Celcius over pre-industrial levels.

WORKINS congratulates the Indian trade union movement on its huge general strike on Friday, September 2, 2016, which involved 180 million workers. The union action was against the anti-worker and anti-people policies of Narendra Modi’s BJP government. A similar strike at the same time last year mobilised 140 million workers. This year’s strike had a sharper focus on defending public sector workers and fighting privatisation.

Photo: CITU

The September 2 strike is an inspiration to trade unions and workers everywhere, especially in the struggle to lift minimum wages and to mobilise the unorganized.

WORKINS supports the call for the end of contractorization on all aspects of work, not only in permanent or perennial working arrangements!

WORKINS condemns the police violence and calls for the immediate release of the 34 workers and union leaders arrested in Gurgaon, West Bengal!

The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal used the brutal force of its police as well as its goons to physically attack the workers on strike. There were clashes in several districts as workers resisted the use of force. Section 144, which bans gatherings of 10 or more people in a specific area, was imposed in several industrial areas – Gurgaon, Faridabad in Haryana, Nodia etc. 12 workers of Maruti Suzuki and 22 transport union leaders were arrested in Gurgaon. Police went to workers’ residential areas in Gurgaon to coerce contract workers who were on strike, to join work. The West Bengal transport minister directed the suspension of striking employees. TMC (Trinamool Congress Party – the ruling party in West Bengal) goons attacked processions of striking workers, youth, women and even journalists in Burdwan and many other places.

Employees and workers from all sectors of the country’s economy – organised and unorganised, public sector and private sector, central and state government departments, and the scheme workers participated in this strike. In all the strategic sectors of the economy – coal and non-coal mines, electricity, engineering, petroleum, defence production, telecom and the financial sector like banks and insurance – the workers and employees took part in the strike in a big way, well beyond the organised membership of the 10 union centers.

The strike was well-prepared by the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) along with Independent National Federations of employees of different industries and services including the Confederation of Central Govt. Employees and Workers

Last-minute concessions by the Finance and Labour Ministries, including a 104-rupee (US$1.57) rise in unskilled workers’ daily minimum wage to 350 rupees (US$5.27), could not ward off the strike. The union demand was for a 692 rupee (US$10.43) daily minimum wage.

Just one major union pulled out of the national strike after this wage concession: the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which, like the ruling BJP, is an affiliate of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

There had been no negotiations between the Modi government and the union movement since prior to the 2015 General Strike.

12 Point Charter of Demands of Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions submitted to government:

Urgent measures for containing price rise through universalization of public distribution system and banning speculative trade in commodity market.

Strict enforcement of all basic labour laws without any exception or exemption and stringent punitive measures for violation of labour laws.

Universal social security cover for all workers.

Minimum wage of not less than 18000/- (US$272) per month with provisions of indexation (for unskilled worker).

Assured enhanced pension not less than 3000 (US$42.50) p.m for the entire working population (including unorganized sector workers).

Stoppage of disinvestment in Central/state public sector undertakings.

Stoppage of contractorisation in permanent/perennial work and payment of same wage and benefits for contract workers as that of regular workers for the same and similar work.

Removal of all ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, provident fund and increase in quantum of gratuity.

Compulsory registration of trade unions within a period of 45 days from the date of submitting application and immediate ratification of ILO conventions C-87 and C-98.

No Foreign Direct Investment in Railways, Defence and other strategic sectors.

No unilateral amendment to labour laws.

Demand of the Central Govt. Employees

Avoid delay in implementing the assurances given by Group of Ministers to NJCA (National Joint Council of Action) on 30th June 2016, especially increase in minimum pay fitment formula. Implement the assurance in a time bound manner.

Fill up all vacant posts by special recruitment. Lift ban on creation of new posts.

Remove ceiling on compassionate appointments.

Extend benefit of Bonus Act amendment 2015 on enhancement of payment ceiling to the Adhoc bonus/PLB (Productivity-Linked Bonus) of Central Govt. employees with effect from the financial years 2014-15. Ensure payment of revised bonus before Pooja holidays.

Revive JCM [Joint Consultative Machinery] functioning at all levels.

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